It's time for Summer Series Premieres

Marshall Mann is a brilliant second banana role, especially for a TV drama.

A federal marshal working the witness protection program, he's part cop, part family counselor, part travel agent and part partner to Mary Shannon, who can be the toughest of TV-cop cookies.

On July 14, Kyra Sedgwick returns as Brenda Leigh Johnson, in the "The Closer" on TNT.

And all deadpan comic foil.

"I think it's rare to have a one-hour show with this kind of humor," said Frederick Weller, an alumnus of Jesuit High School and Le Petit Theatre productions who's portraying Mann. "It's a great opportunity for a theater actor, in that you usually have in the theater drama with humor. In television, it's usually one or the other.

"Sitcoms can be quite silly and broad. The dramas can be quite humorless. This script immediately just jumped out."

The frequent and frequently dark comic byplay between Mann and Shannon, played by Mary McCormack ("The West Wing," "Private Parts"), is but one of the many attractions of "In Plain Sight," a new drama debuting Sunday on USA.

It is just one of dozens of original series that will fill the airwaves during the next three months, as broadcast and cable networks turn those old summer TV doldrums into a parade of new programming that rivals the fall in quantity, if not quality.

"In Plain Sight" represents yet another sturdy cable effort to bleed viewers from broadcast's reality-TV time slot fillers. True to the often offbeat nature of scripted summer fare, the series will alter its tone depending on the kind of witness being protected in each week's episode. Not everybody in the care of these feds will be a crook.

"It's a different genre every week," said Weller, who's successfully made his way in the larger theater world (including starring on Broadway) as well as on TV (with guest roles on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Monk" as well as starring roles in the 1990s ABC drama "Missing Persons" and 2000 miniseries "The Beach Boys: An American Family").

Weller was cast for the role of Mann by "In Plain Sight" creator and executive producer David Maples.

"I started out writing the show with Mary's character as the central focus, and Fred's character just sort of grew out of me wanting to find a unique individual who could handle a personality like Mary's," Maples said. "It takes a certain kind of person who is very confident in who they are ... almost secure to the point of being ego-less.

Holly Hunter is back as Grace Hanadarko, an Oklahoma City detective with a complicated personal life in "Saving Grace" July 14, 9 p.m., on TNT.

"To let a personality like Mary's operate the way she does -- most men I think would have a really hard time dealing with her on a daily basis.

"It takes a certain kind of person to do the job that these people do. It takes a unique understanding of the various people that come into the program. It's such a diverse group, from hardened criminals to lifelong repeat offenders, mobsters, terrorists, gang members. And then there are the innocent victims, the witnesses to crime that really have nothing to do with any criminal enterprise but have found themselves in the wrong place.

"Marshall's character, like Mary's character, has to know when to be tough. They have to know when to be sensitive, they have to know when to put on the kid gloves, and they have to know when to pull out the hammer.

"Even more difficult than dealing with the witnesses, Fred's character has to deal with Mary. She's no walk in the park.

"Marshall lets us all know that we love Mary. Without him there, her hardness is uninformed."

A serialized element that runs through the summer series will be Shannon's dealings with wacky family members.

Weller daydreams about Mann's own back story, which is revealed only slightly in the first season. (We learn, for example, that he favors archaic card games over poker.)

"I'll sit around and think about what bizarre musical instrument he plays," Weller said. "What his father did for a living. It's going to be fun to see that.

"I think David Maples will have lot of fun with that down the road.

"The beauty of it is, it's bound to be weird."

Morgan Spurlock does the tough jobs, on "30 Days" starting with coal miner. Monday, June 9, at 9 p.m. on FX.

For now, Weller is enjoying his first significant blast of network promotion (the series has a rich presence at www.usanetwork.com).

"This is the first time that I've got my own Web site quiz," Weller said. "I took it. Everybody kept talking about it, but I hadn't seen it yet. I pulled the computer out last night and took the quiz and got a 50, which is pretty pathetic considering I must've known the answers at one point."

Not to mention getting to play a tasty second banana.

"It's interesting. Its fun," Weller said of Mann. "(In one episode), there's one scene in which I put a dangerous criminal in an aikido wrist lock, and then several scenes later you see me in pajamas with little planes on them.

"This is a very interesting, multifaceted character. You don't get to play a bad-ass dork very often. He's a trained killer, but he's not very familiar with poker. He plays faro and whist.

"Very, very interesting."

"Fred himself has got a unique, interesting kind of cool personality," Maples added. "I think it just shines through in his character. He's really a special guy, and so smart and so literate. He's really a pleasure to work with."

TV columnist Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3429.

SUMMER DEBUTS
Precise return dates for some of the buzziest upcoming shows haven't been announced (including "Project Runway" and "The Hills"), but the big one ("Mad Men," July 27 ) is locked, so let the summer viewing season begin.

The following is a selected surfable listing of some of what's new (or not) and good (or not) coming to the tube between now and roughly (sometimes very roughly) Labor Day.

"Swingtown" -- A scripted drama about how the suburbs swung in the '70s. Given all the sex, drugs and shaggy hair, the parental advisory should say, "Caution: Could cause disco flashbacks." 9 p.m., CBS